Fishwives baiting the lines, Newhaven

Category

Library Item

Item no

37451

Title

Page from Leith Miscellany, volume V, Fishwives baiting the lines, Newhaven

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1890

Type

Photograph; Reproduction

Newhaven was founded by James IV in 1504 as a royal dockyard. It became an important fishing village, famous initially for oysters and later herring. An indoor fish market was built there in 1896. Newhaven fishwives, with their distinctive striped clothes, sold their goods around Edinburgh. David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson famously photographed these fishwives and other Newhaven residents in the 1840s. The area now has a population of roughly five thousand.

As well as carrying heavy loads of fish for sale, in baskets known as creels, the fishwives carried out other tasks necessary for fishing, including baiting and preparing lines and mending nets.

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Clothing and dress > Accessories > Caps

Clothing and dress > Garments > Aprons

People > Adults > Women

People > Agriculture and fisheries > Fisherwomen

Places > Edinburgh areas > Leith

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh